this article was in the january issue of the alam mo ba.
---
On Tuesday of this week news articles from major Philippine news outlets appeared that talked about the United States government rejecting a request from the Philippine government to hand over 4 American GI's that are accused of committing rape on Philippine soil in November. The United States invoked the VFA to back its action up, saying that it grants it custody of the suspects during legal proceedings.
The VFA has been mentioned in the realm of Philippine politics ever since it was incepted in 1998. So what is it, really?
The VFA stands for the Visiting Forces Agreement. The full text can be found in the website http://www.army.mil.ph/miscellaneous/vfa.html.
The Agreement basically grants the United States the ability to send its soldiers over to the Philippines during peacetime for war exercises. A synopsis from the Department of Foreign Affairs reads:
“The VFA, in essence, is a mechanism for regulating the circumstances and conditions under which United States forces may visit the Philippines for bilateral military exercises. The VFA governs the entry and exit of U.S. personnel in the country and establishes the manner of disposing of criminal cases against any of its members, who commits an offense in the Philippines. The VFA also establishes a procedure for resolving differences in that may arise between the two sides with regard to the provisions of the agreement.”
Now this agreement has been controversial from day one because there is a very vocal leftist sector in the Philippines that is very anti-American and would rather not see these exercises happen. The supporters of the VFA insist that it is not a launching pad for the United States to open up military bases in the Philippines again (they've closed the bases since 1992 I believe) etc.
The big question regarding the VFA now is who gets custody of US military personnel who commit crimes under Philippine law during their stay in the Philippines. The debate still rages on as to who does, and it has recently intensified due to the recent rape charges leveled against the 4 American GI's in November. Knowing how slow the Philippine courts can be sometime, it could take a while before many of the issues surrounding the VFA are resolved; expect it to appear in the news again in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Thanks for caring so much about the Philippines. I hope you will also sign this Petition to save the children in Philippine Prisons as exposed on CNN's World Report just this week. Mabuhay!
PS The vocal left has fallen silent because of the recent CNN expose of the inhuman condition in Philippine prisons.
Post a Comment